TRANSACTIONS Of THE SECTIONS. 7 



parted to a boy, is, or may be, useful to him in the business of his after life ; but the 

 claim of natural science to a place in education cannot be rested upon its practical 

 usefulness only. The gxeat object of education is to expand and to train the mental 

 faculties ; and it is because we believe that the study of natural science is eminently 

 fitted to further these two objects, that we urge its introduction into school studies. 

 Science expands the minds of the young, because it puts before them great and 

 ennobling objects of contemplation ; many of its ti-uths are such as a child can under- 

 stand, and yet such that, while in a measure he imderstands them, he is made to 

 feel something of the greatness, something of the sublime regularitj', and of the im- 

 penetrable mystery of the world in which he is placed. But science also trains 

 the g^'owing faculties; for science proposes to itself truth as its only object, and it 

 presents the most varied and at the same time the most splendid examples of the 

 different mental processes which lead to the attainment of truth, and which make up 

 what we call reasoning. In science error is always possible, often close at hand ; 

 and the constant necessity for being on our guard against it is one important part 

 of the education which science supplies. But in science sophistry is impossible ; 

 science knows no love of paradox ; science has no skill to make the worse appear the 

 better reason ; science visits with a not long-deferred exposure all our fondness for 

 preconceived opinions, all our partiality for views that we have ourselves maintained, 

 and thus teaches the two best lessons that can well be taught — on the one hand the 

 love of truth, and on the other sobriety and watchfulness in the use of the under- 

 standing. 



In accordance with these views I am disposed to insist very strongly on the im- 

 portance of assigning to physics (that is to say, to those subjects which we discuss 

 in this Section) a very prominent place in education. From the great sciences of 

 observation, such as botany, or zoology, or geologj', the young student learns to 

 observe, or, more simply, to use his eyes ; he gets that education of the senses which 

 is after all so important, and which a purely grammatical and literary education so 

 wholly fails to give. From chemistry he learns, above all things, the art of experi- 

 menting, and experimenting for himself. But from physics, better as it seems to 

 me than from any part of science, he may learn to reason with consecutiveness and 

 precision from the data supplied by the immediate observation of natural phe- 

 nomena. I hope we shall see the time when each successive portion of mathe- 

 matical knowledge acquired by the pupil will he made immediately available for his 

 instruction in physics, and when every thiug that he learns in the physical 

 laboratory will be made the subject of mathematical reasoning and calculation. In 

 some few schools I believe that this is already the case ; and I think we may hope 

 well for the future both of mathematics and physics in this country when the 

 practice becomes universal. In one respect the time is favourable for such a 

 revolution in the mode of teaching physical science. During the past few years a 

 number of text-books have been made available to the learner which far surpass 

 any thing that was at the disposal of former generations of pupils, and which are 

 probably as completely satisfactory as the present state of science will admit. It is 

 pleasant to record that these text-books are the work of distinguished men who 

 have always taken a prominent part in the proceedings of this Section. We have 

 Deschanel's 'Physics,' edited, or rather rewritten, by Prof Everett, a book remark- 

 able alike for the clearness of its explanations and for the beauty of the engravings 

 with which it is illustrated ; and, passing to works intended for students somewhat 

 further advanced, we have the treatises of Prof. Balfour Stewart on heat, of Prof. 

 Clerk Maxwell on the theory of heat, of Prof. Fleeming Jenkin on electricity, and we 

 expect a similar threatise on light from another of our most distinguished members. 



These works breathe the very spirit of the method which should guide both 

 research and education in physics. They express the most profound and far- 

 reaching generalizations of science in the simplest language, and yet with the 

 utmost precision. With the most sparing use of mathematical technicalities, they 

 are a perfect storehouse of mathematical ideas and mathematical reasonings. An old 

 French geometer used to say that a mathematical theory was never to be considered 

 complete till you had made it so clear that you could explain it to the first man you 

 met in the street. This is of course a brilliant exaggeration ; but it is no exaggera- 

 tion to say that the eminent writers to whom I ha%e referred have given something 



